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burroughs85
Posts: 168 Member
I just got an almost-minty Mossberg 500 12. ga shotgun yesterday, but a few troubles!
burroughs85
Posts: 168 Member
I bought it at a popular online gun auction marketplace. The site has a G in it and a B in it. I did inspect the gun at my local FFL for transfer before bringing the gun home. At the FFL, I looked down the barrel and there was no rust or pitting. The pictures online made the gun look like it were in mint condition. It has a nice checkered wood stock and a deep blue finish. But here are some troubles as follows:
* scratch on left-hand side of receiver toward the front (partly my fault because I did not notice that the photos at the seller site did not offer full coverage of the gun: the camera focused in on the serial number on the L/H side of the slide but did not catch the scratch forward of that serial number)
** the most outrageous thing I've ever seen. There is a choke tube jammed in the chamber end of the barrel!! Can you believe that! What idiot did that, I wonder? Isn't that something most gun buyers would miss during an inspection? I did not discover this until I got the gun home and tried to dry-cycle some shells through the action to check operation. The gun would not chamber shells. I felt into the chamber area to check for obstructions. Sure enough my pinky felt some notches. I took the barrel off and saw the stupid choke tube lodges in it. I cannot get it out bare handed. Pounding the barrel chamber end down on a 2x4 did not dislodge the choke tube.
Has anybody here had a bad used firearm purchase experience like this? Would you have thought to check the chamber out for a possible choke tube stuck in it? Who could ever imagine something like this?
* scratch on left-hand side of receiver toward the front (partly my fault because I did not notice that the photos at the seller site did not offer full coverage of the gun: the camera focused in on the serial number on the L/H side of the slide but did not catch the scratch forward of that serial number)
** the most outrageous thing I've ever seen. There is a choke tube jammed in the chamber end of the barrel!! Can you believe that! What idiot did that, I wonder? Isn't that something most gun buyers would miss during an inspection? I did not discover this until I got the gun home and tried to dry-cycle some shells through the action to check operation. The gun would not chamber shells. I felt into the chamber area to check for obstructions. Sure enough my pinky felt some notches. I took the barrel off and saw the stupid choke tube lodges in it. I cannot get it out bare handed. Pounding the barrel chamber end down on a 2x4 did not dislodge the choke tube.
Has anybody here had a bad used firearm purchase experience like this? Would you have thought to check the chamber out for a possible choke tube stuck in it? Who could ever imagine something like this?
Replies
Most likely, I’d have removed the barrel from the receiver and the bolt from the receiver during initial inspection at my FFL had I bought a used gun from GB.
Kidding, kidding but that is odd that someone did that.
Good place to start.
I'm reading that aftermarket recoil pads can be tricky and pricy as them may need to be custom sanded and fitted by a gunsmith. Slip-over recoil pads look cheesy. There doesn't seem to be an aftermarket screw-on butt pad that will fit a Mossy 500 wood stock like a glove right out of the box without a gunsmith's fiddling with it. I wish the gun makers and the recoil pad makers would all get on the same page and have everything built with uniform dimensions. A butt pad should be industry standard for fit like a light bulb in a household 120-volt socket. A butt pad should be a no-gunsmithing affair like attaching a sling or a scope.
Buttpads pretty much don't fit stocks exactly because the factories most likely do the final sand and shape of the stock with the pad attached.
Old, dried-out, crumbly pads are an unfortunate reality of dealing in used guns. Fortunately, you're lucky in that it's on a pump shotgun where the stock is a rear "module" that comes off, is short, and easy to work with; and also in that it's a Mossberg - - GREAT gun, but there's nothing high-dollar going on. Mask the stock heavily with several layers of tape and fit the new pad with your own grinding wheel. If you buzz through the tape and nick the stock, you haven't destroyed a Holland.
As to the choke tube, contact the seller and see how to work it out. If it can be extracted and the chamber isn't damaged, no harm, no foul, If that's a no-go, a 500 barrel isn't exactly a rare thing - maybe the sell can spring for one, compensate you for one, etc... Goofy stuff like that is ALSO an unfortunate reality of dealing in used guns, and a choke in the barrel is something SO stupid that your seller wouldn't have even thought to check for it. Odds are you can come to an agreement and make it right.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
Mr. Burroughs; I plead guilty on the choke tube. I never had a chance to test fire that gun,so it made an ASS out of me.. If you will look at my photos I had a picture of most of that side of the receiver ,and there is no scratch on it. BUT never- mind return the gun to Greenerfields and I will refund all your funds to you. I apologize for the tube Debacle.
I asked for return shipping to be covered too. I will see how he responds. Please stay tuned.
Boy, the things you really have to inspect when buying a used gun. You have to look in places that most people would never have thunk to look there.
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
But this does sound like good progress.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
"The Un-Tactical"
That is precious
"The Un-Tactical"
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain